Bethany Khan is the Spokeswoman and Director of Communications & Digital Strategy at the Culinary Union. She uses strategic communications, technology, data, and digital strategy to support working families in Nevada.
Bethany is a first-generation daughter of immigrants who overcame many struggles to make sure she had opportunities they never had. Bethany's great-grandmother was an indentured worker from India and both of Bethany's parents were born in Guyana and were young immigrants in the United States of America and undocumented workers until 1986. Because of her ancestor's sacrifices, Bethany was the first in her family of 10 to go to college and graduate with a bachelor’s degree.
Bethany graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota and has used those skills to fight for justice. Bethany has immediate family members who are undocumented and she is passionate about the Culinary Union’s goal to win comprehensive worker-centered immigration reform. As spokeswoman for Nevada’s largest union and immigrant organization, Bethany is proud to use her digital and strategic communication skills to support working families in Nevada.
The Culinary Union, Nevada's largest union and immigrant organization, has improved the lives of over 800,000 Nevada hospitality workers and their families with middle-class union wages and good benefits. In 88 years, the Culinary Union has become an essential economic institution and a strong political force in the Battle Born State.
In the past 11 years, Bethany's communications and digital strategy has played a major role in the Culinary Union’s organizing, legislative, policy, and electoral campaigns, especially during the 2022 Midterms when the Culinary Union ran the largest political program in Nevada to defend and deliver the Senate Democratic Control by re-electing Senator Catherine Cortez Masto.
Bethany ran a comprehensive strategic communications program to support the largest political effort in state, which included 7 million emails and texts, completely in-house polling, digital persuasion social media ads targeting Nevada voters, a Gubernatorial video ad with over 5 million views, and she highlighted the stories of workers who knocked on 1 million doors and helped cure over 11,000 ballots. In 2022, the Culinary Union, under Bethany's leadership and direction, had $50 million in earned media uplifting directly impacted and frontline essential hospitality workers’ voices who were featured in international, national, and local media markets.
Awards, recognitions, and nominations: Bethany was honored as a Trailblazer at the Asian Community Development Council’s InspirAsian Gala in 2021, distinguished as a "40 under 40" award recipient at the American Association of Political Consultants in 2018, recognized on the National Association of Asian Pacifics in Politics & Public Affairs “40 under 40 List” in 2018, was named one of Vegas INC’s “Women to Watch” in 2016, was nominated as a High Tech Woman of the Year in 2015 in the Vegas Women Tech Awards, and was proudly a World Food Championships Judge in 2014.
Previous leadership roles Bethany has served: The Planned Parenthood Nevada Board, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s “Path to the Future” National Advisory Group, Nevada Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, and University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) Latinx Advisory Board.
Bethany currently serves as a member on: The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (Board Chair), Nevada Housing Justice Alliance, University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) AAPI Voices Advisory Board, UNLV Immigration Clinic Community Advisory Committee, and the Las Vegas Sun’s Community Editorial Review Board, where she represents the Culinary Union, 60,000 hospitality workers, and issues important to working families.